A Day to Remember
by Rillian
Summary: How will two kids and one old man escape to a world much better than their own? And for that matter, how will they survive the ruling Politicians, the armed Vices, and the hawklike Media of 2084?
1. Chapter 1

Errrr... Okay, I don't know if any of you have read George Orwell's 1984, but if you have this is a bit of a modernized version. shrugs Hope you'll find it interesting. All references to 1984 are copyrighted to Mr. Orwell, obviously. Enjoy!

**In the Beginning**

At first glance, you might say it was a young girl walking down the avenue of the city, her head bent slightly against the wind. On second glance, you'd recognize the features of the face to be those of a young adult, in her late teens perhaps, early twenties at best. There was no one but the woman out that night; that worked to her advantage, though only to a limited extent. She raised her head briefly to confirm her destination; an all but abandoned bus stop, in an all but abandoned neighborhood.

The woman promptly lowered her head again, and stuffed her hands in her pockets. They could hardly be called pockets, as she could only fit her fingers in to the second knuckle. The jeans were government designed so nothing could be hidden in them. The woman dealt with this by securing her thumbs in the loops where a belt might have gone on a different day, that suiting her purpose as well as full sized pockets might have. The wind suddenly caught a lock of her bracken colored hair, and swept it behind her with several others that had escaped the untidy braid that fell a few scant inches down her back. Finally the woman reached the bus stop, and sat on the bench. The poor thing groaned in protest under her weight, but it held her in spite of it's condition.

The woman looked up sharply as she heard the crunch of footsteps coming towards her through the litter of one of the side streets, then her tense face visibly relaxed as she saw who it was. "You scared me," she said flatly as a man not much older than she walked to her side.

"Sorry," he replied sheepishly. "How did it g-"

"I have bad news," the woman interrupted. "I've been tagged." She raised one wrist and pulled back the tattered green jacket that concealed it. A battered slip of precious paper dangled there by a loop of thread, so tightly that the woman's grayish blood dripped around it and dyed it. The man's reaction would have been satisfactory if this had been a joke.

"You what? Do they suspect you yet?" he spluttered.

"I don't know, but the Politicians certainly are aware of what's starting to happen," the woman replied.

"What about a chip Ivy?"

'Ivy' shot him a piercing look that would have killed him if the blue eyes could have a physical force.

"No. They didn't give me a chip yet," Was the reply. The man breathed an obvious sigh of relief that was almost comical.

"There's also good news," Ivy said after a pause.

"Well get on with it," the man replied impatiently. Ivy wordlessly pulled at a gold chain around her neck, and pulled up a gold pendant from under her shirt with it. The pendant was engraved with an emblem in a shape not unlike that of a griffin in the center, and around it there were countless runes, some of which could only have been properly examined under a microscope.

"Where'd you find it?" the man hissed quietly, barely resisting the urge to punch the air and yell for joy.

"One of the Vices was wearing it around his neck. I snagged it when he tagged me. Don't even THINK about making any noise Fred, you'll bring the Media down on us like hawks," Ivy growled when he saw the awe on her friend's face.

"I wasn't going to. And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Fredrick?" he replied, running his fingers through black hair that looked like it should have been washed the day before.

"At least one more time, now let's go befo-" The woman's voice was promptly cut off, and she started choking. Fredrick soon saw why. A dart tipped on one end by a sharp needle, and on the other by a single green feather, trademark of the current generation of Vices, was stuck the full length of the needle in Ivy's neck. The feather seemed ridiculously colorful in the grey surroundings, and it seemed a violation to the dismal neighborhood. Fredrick stared at the dart for a moment, but his gaze was torn away against his will as Ivy toppled to the ground.

Fredrick's gaze undoubtedly would have remained on Ivy's still form had he not been born and grown up in this neighborhood. He searched over the buildings' faces for any glint of metal, his grey-hued eyes pained but intent. Finally he saw it; the glint of a gun being withdrawn from a window on the third floor of a building, painfully close to his position at the bus stop. With little thought, Fredrick reached down and wrenched the chain from Ivy's neck, then pelted down the street and away from her. He didn't even check for a pulse; the Vices' darts always killed.

And that was what happened on October 13th, 2084. It would happen hundreds of times more, though only in Fredrick's memory.


	2. Chapter 2

And in this chapter we have...

Not much to be honest. A little insight on an oddity of one of the main characters, and I'm basically introducing the two of them. shrugs That's it. XD Not a very exciting chapter, but in the next one there will be plot development!

**Chapter 2**

The sky was crisp and clear, the air cool and sweet, and the grass green from the recent watering the sky had provided. A brilliant golden sun rose high above the treetops of a distant grove, while the deep pool of water in front of a short girl of 9 or 10 reflected the sun in all its grandeur. The girl took a deep breath of the clean air, it filling her lungs the way peace filled the rest of her. In the distance, raising over the grove of trees, a large winged creature appeared, long wings extended as it soared over a thermal, and a long, whip like tail lashing back and forth as the creature raised it's beak like mouth to utter a screech…..

Which sounded very much like the girl's brother trying to get her attention. The girl jolted out of her day dream, and coughed out the smog riddled city air that she'd so willingly taken into her system. Around her, instead of the pristine setting, there was her neighborhood. On any other day, it would have been dismal and undesirable, but today especially it was a poor substitute for the world that had to exist somewhere, if not in only the girl's mind.

"Daydreaming again?" the dark haired girl's elder sibling asked with a sigh. "You know that's going to get you killed one of these days.

"The Media have yet to learn to read minds," the girl informed him curtly, brown eyes blinking away the remnants of the scene from her daydreams.

"I suppose," the brother replied with a sigh. "Just be careful okay? Honestly, when you start in on your fantasies you're dead to the world."

Though it didn't really sound like it, the brother, Aaron, really did love his sister. It was because of this that he didn't approve of her dreams, especially when she lapsed into one at a random moment, like she had here when they were walking down the cracked sidewalk; he cared for her safety. The short girl had just suddenly stopped with a look of rapture on her face, and Aaron had gone several more steps before realizing he was leaving her behind.

"Come on Elle, we'd better get home before someone decides we've been standing out here to long," Aaron said with a sigh.

'Elle' was short for Elisha, and on any other day the girl would have curtly informed Aaron that that was her name and she wanted to be called Elisha. Elisha gave one more huff to expel the smog from her lungs, then took the light breaths all Citizens did when they were outside as she scampered after Aaron, who had since started down the sidewalk again. Elisha was struck by the urge to tug a lock of Aaron's inch-too-long red hair, but decided against it with a grimace. Aaron was already set on edge today, something that had happened in School, or so Elisha guessed.

The two soon came upon a run down old apartment building, and Aaron produced a key from his pocket, using it to unlock the front door. He stepped inside what could have been called a hovel a century ago, but was now a fairly middle class home. The paint was peeling everywhere, and there were stains on the walls everywhere except where the wallpaper border near the ceiling had once been. There was a loveseat in front of a television set that; both looked like they'd seen better days, with the loveseat's fabric being faded and mottled with patches, and the TV covered with dirt and grime. It was almost impossible NOT to have some sort of filth on your belongings, that was just the way things were and that was just what was expected.

In a room to the left there was a kitchen, where dirty dishes had piled up in the sink; neither siblings liked washing them. Because of this, flies gathered there and buzzed over the remnants of yesterday's meals, and a forlorn looking flyswatter was resting on the table. On the small, fold out table, there was no tablecloth to speak of, and there were almost as many dishes piled there as in the sink.

"Elle-" Aaron began, but when he saw the look Elisha was giving him, he added the "isha" before continuing. "Elisha, you need to go to bed, we stayed out a little later than we should have tonight."

"I suppose so…" Elisha said reluctantly. "Do you have School tomorrow?"

"Yes, I do," Aaron said with a nod. Elisha's face fell, and Aaron sighed. "I have to go to school Mondays through Fridays remember? What day is it today?"

"Thursday."

"So one more day of school before I get to spend a full day with you," Aaron said with a decisive nod.

"D'you think it'll come faster if I sleep harder?" Elisha asked with a slight frown.

"Er….. Well you never know, maybe," Aaron said with a shrug. Elisha grinned and darted off to the small bedroom the siblings shared, and quickly staked her claim on half of the bed. Aaron returned the grin, then walked back into the living room to study. He pulled a heavy book called "A Citizen's Loyalty to the Government", and began to read on the loveseat.


End file.
